Unprecedented and aggressive support to the farmers struggle by united opposition in Parliament fuels battle against Modi model
Farmers battle attains new dimension with aggressive support
by united opposition in Parliament
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
The year long farmers struggle reached another level today
with aggressive and unprecedented support by united opposition in Rajya Sabha
today. The farmers protest rocked the Parliament today like never before. At another level, the fight against Modi model of development gets major boost.
The farmers organisations have so far rightly maintained
distance from the political parties since the agitation pressing for scrapping
of the three disastrous farm laws shifted to Delhi on November 26 last. The
farmers finally succeeded in taking their protest to Jantar Mantar in the heart
of New Delhi by way of staging mock Parliament that has come under global
focus.
Every aspect of the farm economy has been minutely dissected
at this forum including by farm economists and experts. The chorus is against these
three laws that would push a major section of the farmers from farming.
As the monsoon session of the Parliament began, the farmers
organisation issued a novel ‘farmers whip’ to the opposition MPs in the two
Houses to remain present and take up their cause.
This whip had its most dramatic impact today.
The two issues that have since day one come under focus are
the farm laws and Pegasus military spyware. The MPs have also been staging
protests outside the Parliament House every.
The battle took another turn on Tuesday when the Opposition
turned aggressive in the Rajya Sabha.
This was the day when the opposition parties had decided to
allow the passage of a particular bill smoothly in the Lok Sabha while staging
protest outside.
Congress Rajya Sabha member from Punjab Partap Singh Bajwa finally
stood up on a table surrounded by his colleagues shouting slogans and then threw
a file towards the podium. It was total pandemonium. The opposition members
raised slogans demanding the withdrawal of three acts.
Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh too staged vocal protest
while sitting on the table and joined in by the collagues.
In the Lok Sabha, Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal utilised
the time allotted to her party to speak on the bill to focus on the farmers
issues too and ended her speech by raising slogans in favour of the farmers.
It may be mentioned that she had resigned from the Narendra
Modi cabinet on the day the Lok Sabha adopted these bills. It is a different
matter that she was the first Akali leader to aggressively defend the three
ordinances followed the next day by her husband and party chief Sukhbir Singh
Badal. Now she has been seen standing every day at the entrance of Parliament
with placard.
The farmers definitely need this support as they are
fighting not their own battle but people’s battle against anti-people policies rooted
in the free market that have been followed by the ruling classes in India for
the last three decades.
This struggle has to be fought at every level. It is in this
context that the battle in Parliament has to be seen.
In the Punjab context, however, there is another important
dimension to this battle and the competitive support by the political parties. The
state is to go to the Assembly polls in February 2022.
These opposition parties are battling for not just the
ballot but support of the farmers organisations too as this is one of the main
factors that is going to dictate the outcome of the electoral fight.
Some of the farmer leaders like Gurnam Singh Charuni from
Haryana are politically ambitious but these people constitute the minority
view.
It may be mentioned here that the electoral dynamics is
entirely different from the people’s struggles and this important aspect can’t
be overlooked.
The issue here is the competition among the main three
contenders to occupy maximum space in the farmers domain. Bajwa today seemed to
have outclassed the other competitors.
The farmers might be maintaining respectable distance from
the political parties but the support from these parties would go a long way in
putting pressure on the Modi government.
The opposition is now resorting to the tactics adopted by
the BJP when in opposition of not allowing the Parliament to function.
For the struggle to succeed, it has to be fought at every
level, at the level of the people and the
Parliament.
This long struggle is going to impact the polity of the
country in the long run, especially its aspect of empowerment of women.
Comments
Post a Comment